Kup! Minerva! Jose! DK Prime! ...Anybody!

[Rhymus]

U.S., U.K., and others use
the English tongue to share our views.
But what about in places where
they don't? What's Wheelie saying there?
In foreign lands, like overseas,
does Wheelie still use rhymes like these?
And what about his Varta friend?
On what language does he depend?
His translator depends on rhyme,
but rhyme two lingos at one time?
When i read things that Varta said,
it's English words i thought i read.
But English, Varta does not know--
does his own language rhyme also?

...i don't think i can rhyme this entire post, and i don't feel like trying. (i'm rather proud of that little poem of mine, though.)

At this point, we shift focus from the fictitious Wheelie and Varta to the nonfiction characters: you. Specifically, any of you who live someplace where English is not the official and/or most common language.

First, let me thank you for putting in all the time and effort to learn English entirely for my personal benefit; that was very kind of you.

Jokes aside, i'm curious where you live, what your native language is (and/or the most common language where you live), and when and where and why did you learn English?

Did you become a fan of Transformers before or after you learned English? What language(s) do you get Transformers stuff in? (For example, maybe you saw the 2007 movie and "Revenge of the Fallen" dubbed into your native language, but the toys you buy come in tri-lingual packaging, and you import Japanese DVDs to watch the Japanese cartoons.)

i know that American and Japanese TF storylines are often wildly different; if you've seen TF stories (comics, cartoons, or anything) in any other languages, do they have additional versions of those stories? and do you have any preference for one version over another? other than it being easiest to understand in your own language--i've heard of many Americans preferring the Japanese cartoons (including preferring "Headmasters" etc. over "The Rebirth", preferring "Car Robots" to "Robots in Disguise", "Micron Legend" better than "Armada"...) and i've read about Japanese people (including some TF designers!) who like the American stories better than the Japanese ones.

[Rhymus]

Wheelie isn't the only TF with a distinctive speech pattern, is he? (See Omega Supreme day: discussed here.) What about Omega Supreme, Soundwave, and the Dinobots? and probably others i'm forgetting at the moment? How do they speak when TF fiction is translated into other languages?

[Time Traveller]

I can attest that Wheelie does NOT rhyme in the Japanese series, "Headmasters", which supercedes "the Rebirth" in the post-movie era. He does, however, keep his childlike tone. In fact, some of the Japanese dub characters have different distinctive speech patterns or accents that are lost on anyone but a native speaker. TV-Nihon has done some excellent fan-subtitles for Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory and beyond, and they often make cultural notes to help convey these linguistic "in jokes", and add meaning to otherwise nonsensical dialogue translations.

[Minerva]

Interesting questions! Let's see if I can answer some of the for you.
In Sweden the most common language is Swedish. However, English is a language that you'll encounter every day, more or less, mainly as soon as you turn on your TV or computer.
We usually don't dub any movies or TV series unless they are cartoons or kids shows. When they're not dubbed they're subtitled like the rest of the shows and/or movies.

Most people in Sweden can both read and speak English to some degree, as it's (to my knowledge) a mandatory subject in schools. I started learning when I was in 4th grade, and I think that today's curriculum is quite similar to what it was back then.

I did have a few early episodes of G1 Transformers on VHS when I was little. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly what all of the characters voices were like. I do think that the English ones are better than the Swedish, for the most part anyway. I never watched a Swedish dub of an episode with Wheelie or Omega Supreme in it, so I'm afraid I don't know about those.

I don't know much about the comics since I only bothered to get the G1's. However, as far as I know all comics were translated into Swedish.

Regarding Transformers toys I believe we have the American packaging. However, if memory serves me right, I think that the boxes of some G1 Transformers had big stickers with the character bios and/or tech specs translated into Swedish, placed over the original American text. I'm not sure which language/s the instructions came in.

Finally, the language doesn't really matter to me, as long as I can understand it (obviously).
I usually prefer cartoons and comics in their original language though, since some things are often lost in translation.

[Rhymus]

Thanks for your answers! As a way of saying "thank you," i will ask you even more questions! ;-)

TT, i imagine it might be possible to discern rhyming (or the lack thereof) even if one knows nothing about the language one is hearing, but your knowledge of Japanese Wheelie's non-rhyming makes me curious: Do you speak/understand Japanese?

Quasi-related question: Do you speak/understand Swedish?

(...i'm quite sure you've claimed to be an American... Actually, "live in America" is different from "American", isn't it? --You're a native speaker of English, right?)

We usually don't dub any movies or TV series unless they are cartoons or kids shows.

Transformers doesn't qualify? ;-)

I usually prefer cartoons and comics in their original language though, since some things are often lost in translation.

That's a part of the reason some TransFans whose native tongue is English still prefer the Japanese versions, i think.

Finally, the language doesn't really matter to me, as long as I can understand it (obviously). :P

Shall i assume, then, that Swedish versions of TF shows/comics/etc. tell the same stories as American ones?

Drifting into non-TF, "General Discussions"-type topics, here are some questions i always like to ask multi-lingual people: What language(s) do you think in? What language(s) do you dream in?

And a new one: How much do you blend languages? (You've heard of Spanglish, an informal hybrid of Spanish and English? Like that. i once overheard a girl on the phone at school speaking something like Spanglish, only instead of English mixed with Spanish, it was English mixed with Portuguese. i asked her, because i used to study Spanish, and i recognized words from my native English in her speech and didn't recognize a bunch of words that sounded almost but not quite Spanish. [/irrelevant anecdote])

[Time Traveller]

I am an American-born native english speaker, yes*. I do not understand Japanese, however I can discern some words and speech patterns (especially with simplified cartoon dialogue). I am fluent in most American English accents from Bostonian (wicked pissah) to Texan (i mean it, suhn.), as well as Canadian and Yooper (I went ta school der, hey!) I speak and understand German decently well. I know some Swedish, but it's definitely a work in progress for me.

In Germany, there is a slang called "Denglish" (Deutsch/English). It was first exemplified to me in the sentence
"Gehen wir zum Bike Shop und checken die Bikes aus?"
(should we go to the bike shop and check the bikes out?)

There is even a song about Denglish by a German a capella band that culminates in the suggestion that Microsoft alias as Kleinweich in Germany (Klein=small, weich=soft)

And a last note about watching the JP cartoons in subtitles with the original dub: fan-dubs almost always lack the voice acting quality, and the lips/expressions almost never synch up except in anime 2-frame talking, where the only facial motion is an alternating series of mouth open/mouth closed shots of an unmoving head.



*Actually, I'm an East-German born anti-Soviet sleeper agent trained by the KGB and responsible for ratting out the recent rash of Russian spies in deep cover in the US. Not really, but it'd be more interesting, rite?

[Rhymus]

Bah! i forgot to thank you for the tip about TV-Nihon. Thanks for the addendum about acting/synching quality, too.

Interesting about Denglish, too, so thanks for sharing that. And please forgive my ignorance, living in the narrow little world that i do and counting on a 3PO to help me with the words i don't recognize, but... What/Where/Whence is Yooper?

P.S.: Thanks for scraping those Russians off my back. My superiors will reimburse you for the exploding cufflinks, the rocket belt, and the whoopee cushion.

[Minerva]

Transformers doesn't qualify?

No, sorry. I counted Transformers as cartoons.

Shall i assume, then, that Swedish versions of TF shows/comics/etc. tell the same stories as American ones?

Yes, to my knowledge they do. But like I said, some of the minor details might be missing or misinterpreted due to the translation.

Drifting into non-TF, "General Discussions"-type topics, here are some questions i always like to ask multi-lingual people: What language(s) do you think in? What language(s) do you dream in?

Haha! Well, Swedish is the language that I use the most. I mainly use English when I'm chatting online and talking to TT. I usually (not always) think in Swedish and, I'm not entirely sure about this, but I'm pretty convinced that I dream in Swedish.

And a new one: How much do you blend languages?

The Swedish language has borrowed words straight from English, meaning that the word has the same meaning and is spelled and pronounced the same way in both languages. We have also borrowed a number of English words which we have changed slightly so that they'll suit our language better.
Examples:
The Swedish word for "(to) email" is "maila", and the Swedish word for "tough" is "tuff".
Over the past years we've also started using more English words combined with our own language. Some swear words do seem to be quite common...